Worried you may not be creative or you may not be creative \renough? This quiz will help you find out just how creative \ryou are.

Take a piece of paper and number it from one to seven. For \reach question, write down the corresponding letter of your \ranswer.

1. When you come across a rose, you immediately:

A. Smell it. \rB. Quote every rose poem you can remember. \rC. Write your own poem. \rD. Sketch the rose. \rE. Step on the rose.

2. One of your dreams in life is to:

A. Write a novel. \rB. Become a painter. \rC. Travel the world. \rD. Climb all the famous mountains. \rE. Just once, get everything done on your to-do list.

3. Your desk:

A. You have trouble finding as it's buried under everything \rincluding the kitchen sink. \rB. Resembles a natural disaster. \rC. Is a bit of a mess, but you know where everything is. \rD. Is basically neat -- you use the stacking method. \rE. Is in perfect order -- everything in its place.

4. The person you admire most is:

A. Einstein. \rB. Walt Disney. \rC. Your mother. \rD. Jane Austin. \rE. Anyone who can get everything crossed off his or her \rto-do list.

5. You consider yourself:

A. Extremely creative. \rB. Creative. \rC. Somewhat creative. \rD. A little creative. \rE. About as creative as a turnip (come to think about it, \rturnips may be more creative then you are).

6. You get new ideas:

A. All the time. \rB. Several times a week. \rC. Several times a month.\rD. Once or twice a month.\rE. You dimly recall getting a new idea when Clinton was in \roffice. Or maybe it was the first Bush.

7. You dream in:

A. Color. \rB. Black and white. \rC. Both black and white and color. \rD. You can't remember now. \rE. Nothing. You don't dream.

Scoring:

Throw out all your answers except for number five -- "You \rconsider yourself:". If you answered:

A. Extremely creative -- Then you're extremely creative. \rB. Creative -- Then you're creative. \rC. Somewhat creative -- Then you're somewhat creative. \r\rD. A little creative -- Then you're a little creative. \rE. About as creative as a turnip -- Then you're about as \rcreative as a turnip.

Okay, this was a bit of a trick. But it's true. How creative you \rthink you are corresponds with how creative you really are.

A couple of studies illustrate this. A big company wanted to \rincrease creativity in its employees. So it hired a group of \rconsultants to come in. The consultants started by \rthoroughly testing all of the employees. They discovered the \ronly difference between the employees who were creative \rand those who weren't was this: Creative people believed \rthey were creative and less creative people believed they \rweren't.

Even more telling was what happened to the group that \rwasn't creative. The consultants focused on helping them \rnurture their creativity. At the end, those employees were \ractually more creative than the ones who had initially \rconsidered themselves creative.

And that means you too can become more creative. In fact, \rhow creative you become is entirely in your own hands.

Creativity Exercise -- Assumptions

Ready to become more creative? Here's an exercise.

Write down all the reasons why you're not creative. Go on. \rWrite them all down. Every negative reason you can think of.

Things like:

I've never been creative in my life.

I haven't had a new idea in over a year.

I don't have time to be creative.

Now reverse those negative assumptions and make them \rpositive. Like so:

I am a creative person.

I have lots of new ideas all of time.

I don't need time to be creative because I already am \rcreative.

Do this every day and see what happens. This is a great \rway to start getting rid of those inner demons that keep all of \rus from realizing our true potential.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and \rCopywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She \roffers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine \rtheir creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting \rprinciples to become more successful at attracting new \rclients, selling products and services and boosting \rbusiness. She can be reached at \rhttp://www.writingusa.com.